Being Afraid is All in Your Mind
by humanwithrabbitears
Summary: Takes place during Jonathan's teaching years at Gotham University. This will be a Jonathan/OC. I'm undecided on whether it will become romantic at all, but I'm leaning more towards infatuated student/cruel teacher.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I'm kind of going my own way here with Jonathan and the fear toxin. It's going to be a combined mixture of the comics/Gotham/Batman Begins, but due to the fact that this is the Cillian Murphy incarnation, it's going to be labeled as such. I'm sorry if Jonathan has any OOC moments, I'm kind of using this idea to get back into writing. The chapters aren't always going to be a continuity either, but they are still apart of the same story. Any feedback is welcome! Thanks! -humanwithrabbitears

"Fear can also be inappropriate," The professor continued, leaning against the front of his desk. His hands were clasped in front of him, so tight his knuckles were beginning to whiten. "For example, we might experience a rush of terror while watching a slasher movie, even though we know the monster is an actor in makeup and that the blood is not real."

_ Dumber than pond scum, _came the little voice in his head. It took everything in the tall and skinny man not to roll his eyes and reply.

"Fear can attach itself to pretty much anything -spiders, clowns, paper, or carpets - and significantly impact people's lives." He continued, crossing his arms across the white button up he had on, scanning the room. A few people were furiously typing away on their computers, taking notes of the things he said. Some visibly had their earbuds in as he spoke, showing they had no care or plan to use any of the things he was saying. This caused him to grip his arms, making his knuckles go white again.

_More guinea pigs, _The voice whispered giddily, a rare emotion from either of them. Well, mainly from Jonathan. Scarecrow on the other hand was a disastrous mixture of anger, disgust and easily amused.

Agitation was already flooding through the blue eye mans body. The latest experiments had gone well…a little awry this time. He thought he was close to getting it, but human trials again proved disastrous. This time, one of the air-headed girls he taught, took the whole vial. She got the whole effect and more. An hour later, she laid dead on the lab floor, eyes scratched out in both hands, barely breathing. The only good thing that resulted from this was that he was able to easily gather more cortizal and adrenaline for the serum. He heavily sighed, scanning the room again, this time for targets, picking a couple who were blatantly ignoring him, focusing on other things.

A hand from the middle of the row, distracted him from his thoughts and he studied for moment, trying to place who was in that seat before it dawned on him. Morgana Drake. Odd name, but then again, he was in Gotham. It wasn't exactly the most normal place on the planet.

"Yes, Ms. Drake?" He asked, preparing himself for whatever was about to come from the girls mouth.

"How does the brain decide what to be afraid of? You had a couple in your example, but what makes the brain choose those fears? Even the irrational ones?"

Jonathan raised an eyebrow, which wasn't too visibly seen due to his glasses. "Phobias are anxiety disorders, Ms. Drake. They can attach to anything you can think of. Anablephobia is the fear of looking up, octophobia is the fear of the figure eight, vestiphobia is the fear of clothing. Someone who witnesses someone falling off a bridge might develop a phobia to bridges," He spoke, walking away from his desk just slightly, hands in his pockets. "Sometimes, the origin can be relatively easy to understand, others not so easily. In general, though, a phobia's origin is tricky to unravel - after all, most people who witness someone falling off a bridge do not develop a phobia of bridges, so there is more to it than just a simple experience."

Jonathan walked to the white board, writing the homework he expected from the class after the weekend. "In this class, you're going to learn how to unravel a phobia and cure it. I want an essay about your phobia and an in depth explanation of how you'd cure it."

Just as he finished speaking and writing, the class ended, students shuffling out. He went to his desk, trying to quickly gather his things to get to his lab and continue his research. He still had to figure out what he could do to get more subjects. He didn't have nearly enough to create another test batch. Sure, he could just drug and abduct the students, but that wouldn't cause their brains to create nearly enough of what he needed. He needed something to really strike fear into them.

He was so close to recreating his fathers serum. So close, but so far. His grandmother threw away all of his fathers things after his parents had passed away, leaving him with nothing to go on. If only he had something with his fathers notes, then he could have had this done and over with and continued giving people the gift his father gave him. No fear. So many, many, many things could be accomplished without fear. Fear was the basis of all humanity's errors and if he could cause the world to face theirs, they as a species could create so many more wonderful things.

He just had to get there.

***parts of Jonathan's speech to the class is from: . **


	2. Blue Square, Yellow Square

"Today, we're going to learn another of another way a person experiences fear," Jonathan spoke crisply. "A lot of fears and anxieties are learned through communication. If someone tells you to be afraid of a dog, then the brain responds as if you actually were."

Jonathan was holding what he told the school and students was a study. It technically was a study, but not for what the school was expecting. They thought it was a hands-on way for students to understand how the brain is affected by fear, which in a way, it was. For Jonathan though, it was his way of finding his next targets. Those that reacted quickly in the way he wanted, would prove to be his next immediate targets. He needed people who would scare easily, quickly and fast enough to get the needed chemicals from the brain.

He currently had ten of his students in the classroom, dismissing the others for the day. Among those students, was Morigana Drake. She had shown an interest in his class and when he mentioned the study, her hand shot up, asking to participate. There was something going on in her mind he couldn't quite figure out. The others were open books and who he thought would be the easiest to crack.

"I want you to try and understand the neural basis of fear and anxiety," He spoke. "Studying these imagined fears, we can treat many things like panic anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Nearly 19 million Americans suffer from this disorders and struggle coping every day. With this, the potential benefit in this line of research is enormous. It is also going to teach not to believe everything you're told. Now, sit at the table I have set up. Ms. Drake," He spoke, rolling the sleeves of his dress shirt up. "I would like you to attach the pads and electrodes to your fellow classmates here, here and here," He said, pointing to the spots on himself. "You will all then have these placed on you, they will monitor your pulse."

"I'm going to show you a random sequence of blue and yellow squares. Occasionally, when the blue square is shown, you will receive a small shock. In front of you, is a disclosure the school is requiring you to sign before participating. However, not participating will effect half your grade. Just as participating will have. " He smirked.

The alarm was already evident on most of the students faces. A few remained passive or neutral, but he knew it'd become a different story once it began.

_ Good idea, _came the voice, _half their grade? Who's going to pass that up?_

He wasn't concerned about anyone not signing. Jonathan knew most of these students needed this for their grade or else they wouldn't pass the semester. Too bad he didn't expect everyone to see the next one.

Morigana attached the last electrode to a boy named Richard, trying to also pay attention to Professor Crane as he spoke. To say she was exhausted currently was an exaggeration, but she had to push through it. Coming from Metropolis, she thought she'd be able to handle another city, but Gotham was it's own entity. In all honesty, with the way the city was run, you'd think they weren't even attached to the rest of the country. It had a few spots that were okay, like University City, where the three colleges in Gotham where. They were all so close to each other that the students built their own little suburb around them. It was constantly patrolled by campus security as well as the GCPD. It was one of the few areas in Gotham that were somewhat safe. Somewhat. They were still surrounded by the rest of the city and it's noises. Metropolis wasn't that great either in some spots, but they were at least protected more than Gotham was.

With a feeling of satisfaction after checking everyone over, Morigana sat down in her spot and pulled her hair into a tight ponytail, preparing to attach the electrodes and monitors to herself. She had learned once before that sticky things and long hair don't mix well together. She placed the last monitoring piece to her temple, placing a pale hand on the table to attach the rest of the monitoring equipment. _Just like in the ER_, she told herself.

The red head wasn't exactly sure at this point why she even requested to be apart of this. Well, that's not exactly true. It was also why she was taking psychology. Growing up, Morigana felt like she never had the normal fears other kids did. Sure, the first few times experiencing something, she'd be afraid. Just like any kid, but it'd always quickly go away. It was something that stuck throughout her life. She wasn't sure why fear didn't seem to register in her brain the right way. She wanted to figure that out and get to the bottom of it. Studying the way the mind worked seemed to be the best way to figure that out

Getting shocked over a blue square. Ha. It didn't sound like a lot of fun, but it also couldn't be as bad as getting tased in the side. This was probably nothing compared to that, but it didn't mean it was going to be fun either.

"Please keep track to the best of your ability, your physical reactions to the study. I will be keeping track as well," Professor Crane spoke, taking the lens cap off of the video camera situated on his desk.

_Let the fun begin,_ came the raspy, deep voice in his head.


End file.
